


Harry of Halloween Town

by lynngryphon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Genre: Gen, Not Really Character Death, Other, Past Child Abuse, child abuse in first chapter, technically major character death but not in a bad way
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-11-13
Packaged: 2018-03-13 03:33:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3366182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynngryphon/pseuds/lynngryphon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry always heard the song, for as long as he could remember. Every year he tried to find the source and every year he failed. Now, he's finally found it and there is no going back. He was finally going to meet the Pumpkin King.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 'Twas a long time ago, longer now than it seems....

**Author's Note:**

> In honor of International Fanworks Day I'm going to cross post my favorite current WIP from ff.net where I post (archive at this point, I'm terrible) under the same name.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It begins...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter (Rowling) or Nightmare Before Christmas (Burton).

_"This is Halloween, this is Halloween_ ," the little child hummed under his breath as his tiny fingers worked the soil. " _Halloween, Halloween, Halloween..._ " If his Uncle could hear him he'd be under the stairs for sure but as it stood Uncle was at work and would not return until evening. Auntie was over at Mrs. Two's having tea and gossiping leaving Cousin over at Mr. Twelve's to play with his son. That left him all alone outside to work on the yard chores - nothing new.

Halloween was a special time for him. Voices that whispered to him from the dark of his cupboard became clear and crisp at the end of October. There was always one song sung at that time, ringing lively and bright at midnight. Such a strange yet comforting song was the closest thing he had to a lullaby. It was nothing like those breathy diddies Auntie sung to Cousin at night but lively and spirited. If the lyrics were somewhat unpleasant well, he had no one to tell him so.

_"Pumpkins scream in the dead of night."_

He always wondered where this Halloween Town was but he had never found it in the four years he had searched. But this year...this year he was certain he would find his way to Halloween Town and then he could see the Pumpkin King in person.

oooo

Uncle never let him out on Halloween no matter how mad he was and Uncle was always mad around Halloween. But, this Halloween was special in more ways then one. It was the first time he used his freakishness on purpose and the first Halloween he spent the night outside. It was also the first time Uncle really hit him. His eye purpled and swelled immediately and, if his eye was visible, turned bright red from burst blood vessels.

It was the only time in four years Auntie defended him. Auntie snatched his arm and dragged him away from Uncle into the kitchen where she put a bag of frozen peas against his eye.

"Hold that there boy and don't leave this seat," Auntie hissed. With a last glare, albeit weaker than normal, she stormed back into the living room where Uncle was. He learned a lot of new words and phrases in the next thirty minutes which he knew he could never repeat for fear of being severely punished.

oooo

Auntie shoved him out the door that evening, stuffing a raggedy little bag into his hands and glaring at him viciously until he trotted away into the flow of children and their parents. While at first he was desperately worried someone would question the bruise on his face and arm no one did. When he passed by a partially eaten zombie child he understood why no one commented, they thought it was just part of a costume. His heart felt tight and his tummy got squishy and he wasn't sure if he was relieved or sad that no one inquired about his face. That feeling just got worse as he watched groups of laughing and screaming kids run around being watched over by their parents with indulgent patience in their eyes. How he wished…

Harry shook his head. He was six already! He didn't need to anyone look at him like that; he was a big boy and could weed, and garden, and cook, and use the vacuum and none of those other kids could. With that in mind he shoved the squishy feeling as deep down as he could and followed one of the groups of kids to the door of Number 9.

Keeping his head down and letting his hair hide his face, like he learned at home when the Dursley's said something mean and he didn't want them to know how much it hurt, he let the other children scream out "Trick or Treat!" to the door. Mrs. Nine opened the door dressed like a witch holding a cauldron full of candy. With a beaming grin she commented on how adorable the costumes were and went about dropping candy into various sacks, pails, and pumpkin heads. As Harry followed the group back to the street he grinned – Mrs. Nine never even noticed him! Halloween was even better than he always imagined it to be.

The little child dressed like a hobo did this many more times, always breaking off from one group to join another when they returned to the street. He followed the children across to Magnolia Crescent which most children without parents to guard them tended to avoid. This was for a very simple reason – a graveyard butted up against the last houses on the cul de sac. Those specific homes had huge privacy hedges planted cheek to jowl to block the depressing sight. After all, out of sight is out of mind as far as adults are concerned.

He made it most of the way down Magnolia Crescent before reality intruded on his wonderful fun.

"Hey Freak!"

Harry stopped dead in his tracks and craned his neck around. Two houses down on the sidewalk was a very round Superman. The screaming fit Dudley had to throw to get that particular costume still rung in his ears all these weeks later. A Royal Air Force pilot stood to Dudley's left, he was a new kid that had promptly fallen into Dudley's gang of bullies, and Piers Polkiss was on Dudley's right dressed as a ninja. The grin spreading across his cousin's fat face promised pain so, Harry didn't stick around.

"You freak! Get back here!" Dudley shouted as the trio started chasing his much smaller cousin.

Harry ignored his cousin and kept running further down the cul de sac. Unlike his cousin who had to shove kids out of his way and made him slow down even more, Harry was small enough and fast enough to dodge the kids surrounding him. However, the further he came to the dead end the fewer children there were between him and Dudley until no more children dared to tread the haunted street.

Harry looked back only once to see his cousin's cronies gaining on him and didn't look back again, just ran even faster. His sneakers hit grass as he crossed the lawn at Number 14, Dudley's gang just steps behind him but he had a plan. He panted harshly, the air rubbing his throat raw and a stich building in his side but he just kept running, green eyes trained on the hedges just a few feet in front of him. A hand grabbing at the back of his shirt startled him and with a mighty lunge he dived into the hedges separating Magnolia Cresent from the cemetery.

With a wriggle and kick he managed to slip out of the hedges and onto the immaculate lawn of the cemetery. Bending over to catch his breath while his cousin tried to get through Harry grinned in triumph when he saw all the headstones. He would have no problems hiding from Dudley here.

"Boys and girls of every age, would you like to see something strange?"

Harry's head jerked up. Sighing on the wind, louder than he ever heard it before was his song! It twisted around him, tugging at his hair and clothes seeming to draw him further into the graveyard. He followed the singing wind without a second thought, trusting it to lead him safely.

_"Come with us and you will see, this our town of Halloween."_

His steps were unwavering, following the singing deeper and deeper, from the lush manicured lawn to the furthest corner where the grass was longer, the headstones older with the names long since worn away from the surface. Romanesque mausoleums with cracked pillars and crumbling foundations grew up from the ground reminding Harry of a poem Miss Kendrick had read to them in honor of Halloween before school let out.

"We paused before a house that seemed

A swelling of the ground;

The roof was scarely visible,

The cornice but a mound."

He had enjoyed the poem, even if most of the other children didn't. But he was a freak so no one was really surprised.

He wandered further still, humming along with the wind until it finally stopped at what looked to be both the biggest and oldest mausoleum of them all. Gargoyles stood sentinel at the four corners, looking outwards to ward off evil. Large vases with long dead flowers stood beside a dark doorway so dark it seemed a void in space. A section of the roof was caved in and the steps leading up to the doorway was missing chunks. One of the pillars holding up the front part of the roof had a crack running through the middle and the pillar had since settled more firmly along the line, not moving but the roof was no longer straight in the front. The wind stopped its playful guidance but the music still rang through the air, caressing his hopeful face. Now, after four years of searching, he was finally going to see Halloween Town and nobody was around to stop him.

_"In this town, we call home, everyone hail to the Pumpkin Song…"_

Grinning widely, Harry carefully trod the steps until he stood on the threshold of the mausoleum. With a last glance back at all the tombstones and further, in his mind's eye, to Auntie and Uncle and Cousin Dudley, he stepped across the threshold singing his song in time with the echoing voices on the wind.

_"Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back and scream like a banshee make you jump out of your skin. This is Halloween, everybody scream! Won't you please make way for a very special guy…."_


	2. Everyone hail to the pumpkin song...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting the Pumpkin King.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter (Rowling) or Nightmare Before Christmas (Burton).

Wtih every step down the deteriorated corridor the lighter Harry felt. Grinning widely he began skipping in time with the song echoing along the hall that was slowly transitioning from paved to cavernous. The child never noticed the piece of himself that was left behind on his quest to meet the elusive Pumpkin King.

oooo

Harry's exit from the tomb was less than graceful; the toe of Dudley's too large trainer got caught in a bit of debris and sent him catapulting out of the decrepit mausoleum. He rolled head over arse down the stairs and came to an abrupt stop when his back slammed into a tombstone leaving his feet dangling by his ears. Sniffling quietly Harry rocked onto his side and stood up. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hands annoyed that he was crying like a baby. Didn't he say earlier that he was a big boy? Big boys didn't cry over little bumps. Nodding to himself Harry stood up straight and decided to explore-the song was really loud here so the Pumpkin King had to be close by.

His jaw dropped. All around him as far as he could see were headstones. They were sprawled haphazardly, as if the markers were placed where the owner fell.

"Wow..." Harry said. This place was amazing.

The full moon hung fat and happy in the starry black sky casting light and shadow in equal measure. Everything was in various shades of gray except for the very orange jack-o'-lanterns and pumpkins growing all around. Hills rolled the land and one stood out above the landscape, it was tall and narrow with an impossible curl at the very tip tucked underneath, like a fancy witches' hat. A low stone wall ran around the graveyard, separating it from the wilderness beyond.

Harry swiveled his head left and right, up and down, trying to take it all it while at the same time hunting for a way through the maze of graves to where the song was coming from. He was so close he could almost taste it and – There! A worn track meandered its way down the side of the witches' hat hill. Grinning widely he set off through the graveyard towards the hill, tripping over uneven terrain, hopping over low graves, and clambering over pumpkins without a second thought on his quest for the Pumpkin King.

However, he stopped abruptly before a wall at the base of the hill. The wall was taller than he was and when he looked for a break in the wall he couldn't see one. It wound in and out through the graves and he was sure if he followed it he would eventually find a way through but he would also lose sight of the only path to where he was sure the Pumpkin King was waiting. He had to see the Pumpkin King!

Amazingly, as if it heard him, the curly tip of the hill slowly unrolled until it touched down right next to him, showing off the trail stripping down its back. Harry grinned hugely, marveling at the magical land the Pumpkin King ruled. Without a second thought he scurried up the hill and down the other side. Turning around Harry watched the last bit of the tip curling back up again looking like it never moved.

"Thank you for your help!" Harry shouted, waving at the hill happily.

Perking up suddenly Harry's head swiveled around as his song swelled, becoming even livelier than before. 'I have to hurry,' he thought.

With that Harry turned around completely and hurried down the well worn trail that he could see led to houses in the distance.

oooo

It was a very good thing Harry was an expert at Harry Hunting because Halloween Town, as the scarecrow holding the sign called it, was perched rather precariously on the top of a very tall hill. Harry had to use all the endurance and climbing skills learned from years of Harry Hunting to reach the top.

The entire town was surrounded by a swooping grey cobblestone wall with one of those old time barred castle gates; a portcullis Miss Kendrick called it. It was lifted high into the wall, tall enough a giant could fit through. A smile curled Harry's lips and he wondered if there were such things as giants in Halloween Town.

Making sure the coast was clear he scurried quick and quiet as a shadow through the gate and into town.

Harry was very careful to stick to the alleyways as he followed his song to the center of town where all sorts of different monsters stood singing. There were zombies and slime monsters, vampires and real witches, bat boys and ghosts, and there was even a walking hang man's tree with skeletons hanging from the branches. All of them were scattered across the village square where a large fountain stood. A hunched gargoyle that looked liked it was all sharp angles spat a furious stream of water from its mouth and into the pool.

"… _.This is Halloween, red and black and slimy green - Aren't you scared? Now, that's just fine._

_Say it once, say it twice, take and chance and roll the dice - Ride with the moon in the dead of night._

_Everybody scream, everybody scream! In our town of Halloween…."_

Everyone was singing in time, moving and dancing in a chaotic rhythm that was almost perceptible if only Harry stared long enough. He knew if he just watched them he would understand. Harry was curled up tight as he could behind an over flowing dumpster of icky gunk with just the tip of his head and eyes staring out hungrily at the happy crowd. If Harry were honest, he was just a tiny smidge angry at the town folk for being so happy but the awe he felt at being so close to seeing the Pumpkin King overwhelmed and smothered it.

Shaking his head sharply like a dog shedding water he refocused on what was important, the hunt for the Pumpkin King. While he was thinking a parade of new monsters had entered from the way he had come. A zombie butcher hauled a straw horse with a scarecrow rider. With a jerk the scarecrow came to life and grabbed a monster's torch then. Ate. It! As the scarecrow lit up in a brilliant bonfire it began to cavort around. Everyone began cheering and Harry swallowed very hard to make sure he did not join in. With a flip and a great splash the scarecrow dived into the fountain.

" _In this town we call home everyone hail to the Pumpkin Song."_

The water frothed and bubbled and up erupted an insanely tall and skinny skeleton wearing a pinstripe suit like Uncle used to wear to do Very Important Business. Harry clapped his hand over his mouth to stifle his giggling at the bat bow tie. Uncle would throw a fit if he ever saw it. Not that Uncle would ever see it, or him, because Uncle had been left behind.

Green eyes, once bright with excitement at finally seeing the Pumpkin King in person and finding out he was a skeleton, dimmed in anxiety. Uncle, Auntie, and Cousin may have been left behind but their words weren't. While his family was mean they weren't generally liars, or at least not Uncle and Auntie – Cousin wouldn't know the truth if it bit him on the bum, and he couldn't help but see how different he was from the townsfolk of Halloween Town.

Harry's tummy got squishy again and his lip began trembling really fast like he was going to hurl. He bit his lip but it didn't help, just hurt. His eyes began to burn and if he didn't blink fast enough he knew he'd start crying which was a Bad Thing because it didn't help anything. It could even make it worse occasionally.

Black hair whipped around as he shook his head hard to try and shake his family's voices out of his head but all he got was a headache. It wasn't fair! Something that should be the most amazing moment of his life and Auntie and Uncle ruined it and they weren't even here! It just wasn't fair!

The miserable child scrambled to his feet and fled as fast as his legs would take him, taking twists and turns with tear blind eyes. Using that sixth sense all children seemed to possess that let them run pell-mell without hitting anything he made it out of town in record time and he headed back out into the moonlit night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know the drill! Read, review, let me know what you think :)


	3. An emptiness began to grow....

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All is not as it seems...

Harry found himself lost in the middle of the pumpkin field outside the graveyard he arrived in. It did not matter how much he scolded himself, fat burning tears dripped down his cheeks, collected on the tip of his chin, and fell, lost in the midnight gloom of the outskirts of Halloween Town. Aunt Petunia was right, he was a worthless freak - he didn’t fit in the Dursley’s normal world and he didn’t fit in the Skeleton King’s monster world.

Harry grit his teeth hard enough to make them screech against each other, slowly going from sad and lonely to angrier than he ever felt before. It wasn’t fair! He’d dreamed of this night since he could remember, locked away in the cupboard under the stairs with only the spiders and cleaners to keep him company. Of seeing the Skeleton King in person, maybe even sing along with him to the Halloween song. And maybe, a small voice in his head whispered, even finding a home in the King’s court. But now he couldn’t! He was a freak among freaks and there was no way a King would let someone like him live in their kingdom.

He would show them! He was a big boy, even if he did cry:  he could run the vacuum, wash the dishes, and even cook breakfast. He was smart enough to sneak out at night and steal the day old crusts from the middle of the garbage so the Dursley’s wouldn’t know. He knew the best places to hide from Dudley, and which trees were the best to climb away from Ripper, he even knew where to sleep in Mr. Three’s privacy hedges to stay warm when Uncle Vernon got tired of worry about him burning the house down in the middle of the night, and wanted a night of pleasant dreams.

Harry would show them! If he was too big a freak for the Dursley’s or the Skeleton King then he would find someplace where he could be a freak by himself. The Skeleton King may have been a bust but he would never go back to the Dursley’s. Never!

Harry kept moving through the pumpkin field while he was making his momentous decision.

“Never!” he shouted out loud, and then flushed red as Dudley exercising while slapping his hands against his mouth. The little boy ducked down behind a pumpkin even bigger than he was and prayed no one heard him. Thankfully the only things he heard were the distant din of the Halloween Town party and the ever present mournful wailing of the wind through the fields and graves. Still flushed, Harry stood up to look around. His jaw dropped in wonder – all around him grew pumpkins that were taller, bigger, and fatter than him. Even further were ones bigger than Dudley! Smiling in wonder Harry slowly wandered through the amazing orange vegetables, awed as he passed one fatter than Uncle.

“Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater,” Harry sing songed, “He had a wife but couldn’t keep her…”

Harry stopped and really looked around him. All the pumpkins were now bigger than he was and except for the wind, even the noise from town was barely perceptible, no one was here. His mind was running a mile a minute as he finished the rhyme.

“He put her in a pumpkin house, and there he kept her very well.”

He knew where he was going to live. If he was too freaky for Halloween Town then he was certainly freaky enough to live in a pumpkin. Eyes finally bright with something other than tears the little big boy set off in search of the perfect home.

oooo

Between running blindly and then being too short to see over the pumpkins Harry didn’t realize that the pumpkin patch actually curved around back towards the graveyard. Up on the Witches Hat Hill the Skeleton King stared mournfully up at the fat Harvest moon, lamenting the status quo of his kingdom. It wasn’t that he didn’t love Halloween Town and all it entailed, he did, but he was bored. He could only make grown men scream so many times in 200 years before it just became routine.

The king nimbly stepped on top of a grave and danced along the stones with nary a thought.

_“There are few who deny, at what I do I am the best, for my talents are renowned far and wide….”_

oooo

A love torn rag doll watched from behind a row of headstones where she was collecting deadly nightshade and felt tears drip for her king.

oooo

_“….Oh, somewhere deep inside of these bones an  emptiness began to grow….”_

Harry was in raptures over finding the perfect home. It was three times bigger than he was yet it didn’t stand out because of all the other gigantic pumpkins surrounding it. He could live there for years! Best of all it was already carved out. While he’d noticed jack-o-lanterns scattered around he thought the residents of Halloween Town were responsible but his new home suggested otherwise. The vine was still attached to the top and there were no noticeable knife cuts in its orange flesh. It actually grew up from the ground as a jack-o-lantern.

“Wicked…” he breathed. The toothy grin and slanted eyes made Harry think his new home was laughing, encouraging his mad scramble inside to investigate.

_“….That the Pumpkin King with the skeleton grin would tire of his crown, if they only understood he’d give it all up if he only could. Oh, there’s an empty place in my bones that calls out for something unknown….”_

**Author's Note:**

> You know the drill folks! Read, review, tell me what you think! Happy International Fanwork Day :)


End file.
